Fire and Security Alarms Expert Witnesses

Dr. James F. Pastor, Ph.D, JD, CPP, is a multifaceted security expert with a rich background that spans security, policing, legal, and academia. His career began as a tactical officer in Gang Crime Enforcement with the Chicago Police Department, where he gained hands-on experience in one of the nation's most dynamic policing environments. This real-world foundation laid the groundwork for his extensive expertise in security, policing, and public safety.
 
 Transitioning from the streets to the courtroom, Dr. Pastor built a distinguished legal career representing police unions, security guard and electronic security firms, corporations, and religious institutions. His comprehensive counsel and advice to litigation attorneys, corporate counsel, and policy makers is grounded on real world experience and practical understanding.
 
With a doctorate in Public Policy Analysis, Dr. Pastor brings vision and understanding of how policies shape incentives and influence human behavior. This academic insight, combined with his extensive experience, gives him a unique perspective on risk and liability, making him a sought-after advisor for corporations and communities aiming to prevent crime or mitigate its impact.
 
Dr. Pastor’s security sense is a blend of street-level policing intuition, academic scholarship, legal expertise, and technical know-how, further enhanced by a deep understanding of geopolitical trends. His decades-long study of terrorism and extremism also informs his work, allowing him to contribute valuable insights and assessments in a variety of settings.

Areas of Expertise:

Litigation Support - Dr. Pastor is a highly regarded expert witness with experience in policing, security, public safety, and legal issues relating to these. His depth and breathe of experience is substantive, yet practical. Bringing a unique background, along with credentials and skills, including participating in over 750 prior depositions, has proven to be very effective in his expert witness role.

Dr. Pastor has over 20 years of university teaching experience in security, public safety, and policing, including Northwestern University- Center for Public Safety and the International Law Enforcement Academy. 

Author of four books on security and public safety, plus chapter on Private Policing in ASIS International's Protection of Assets Manual and created Privatization of Policing Bibliography for Oxford University Press, both being comprehensive, substantive works relating to Private Policing.

View SecureLaw LLC's Consulting Profile.

Alan J.  Robinson brings over 35 years of Security / Law Enforcement experience to the  security, safety, fire safety, emergency management field. Mr. Robinson is a former Supervisor, Protection Services for Disney-ABC, Inc. in New York, where he coordinated the security of millions of dollars in equipment for both Reagan Presidential Inaugurations. While at Disney-ABC, he was credited with creating the first hostage negotiation training class after an incident at ABC News in Washington, D.C.

Background Experience: For  the past 25 years, Mr. Robinson has been the Director of Protection and Security Services/Emergency  Management for Atlantic Health System; a hospital system based in New Jersey where he manages: Public Safety and Security, Fire/Life Safety, Emergency  Management, Investigations, and Special Events for a healthcare system that approximately 10 million square feet of physical plant and campus, spread  throughout New Jersey.

Mr. Robinson directly and indirectly manages over one-hundred (100) security  officers, investigators, fire safety officers, emergency management officers, and contract law  enforcement officers. He has successfully navigated numerous external agency regulatory compliance  surveys including those from the “Joint Commission,” State Department of Health, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, and New Jersey Office of  Counter-Terrorism.

Litigation Support: Mr. Robinson has been retained to provide consultation, security analysis, and security expert witness testimony by plaintiff and  defendant in a wide variety of civil suits. He is available to consult and testify in matters concerning:

Areas of Expertise

Workplace Violence Prevention and Investigation · Public Safety & Security · Emergency Management · Preventing Infant Abduction · Child Predator Protection · Narcotic Diversion Investigations · Multi-Facility Management · Asset Protection · Hospital Security · Continuous Process Improvement · Crisis Event Management

View Risk and Threat Analysis Management, LLC's Consulting Profile.

Emily Goodman Shortall, CPM®, ARM®, is a Property Management Expert Witness on the property management standard of care in premises liability, habitability, negligent security, slip and fall, landlord-tenant and owner–manager disputes, with 23 years of Commercial and Multifamily Operating Experience. She is President, Property Management Division, Harvey Goodman Realtor (third-generation developer), and a former Regional Vice President (6,000+ units; 1.5M sq. ft. retail). She is a licensed real estate broker in Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, an associate broker in Pennsylvania and a salesperson in West Virginia.

Services for Counsel: consulting or testifying expert; record review, analysis of inspection and maintenance policies and procedures and failure-to-maintain response; expert reports, deposition and trial testimony; plaintiff and defense, nationwide.

Areas:

Retained Matters, 2026 (de-identified; six plaintiff, two defense):

1. Commercial office-building premises safety (plaintiff); final report.
2. Multifamily amenity-area operations and entry management (plaintiff); report in review.
3. Multifamily heating-equipment maintenance and CO detection (plaintiff); report in preparation.
4. Commercial loading-dock operations (plaintiff); final report.
5. Multifamily utility billing, master-metered community (defense); signed report.
6. Commercial sidewalk winter maintenance, mixed-use (defense); affidavit, report pending.
7. Multifamily owner oversight of third-party management (plaintiff); new engagement.
8. Sidewalk winter maintenance, leased property (plaintiff); new engagement.

Testimony: none yet as a retained expert; 20+ prior depositions as a corporate representative.

Method: compares what the organization said should happen with what its records show; opinions address property management practice, not legal, engineering or medical conclusions.

Credentials: IREM CPM® and ARM®; Governing Councillor nominee (2027–2029); former adjunct instructor; IREM award honoree; author, Journal of Property Management.

James Parker has over 35 years of relevant industry experience specializing in Electronic Security Systems & Sensors, Electronics R&D, and New Product Development. He has in-depth knowledge of electronic product design in both Wired and Wireless Technologies and outstanding knowledge of Environmental and False Alarm Immunity. Products, such as alarm systems, that Mr. Parker led the design of, have an installed base in the millions. 

Litigation Support - Mr. Parker provides Patent Litigation support to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defense and is experienced with civil liability, criminal and patent litigation, including Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs). He has the ability to explain complex technical material in a straight forward manner. Mr. Parker's past clients include Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Fish & Richardson PC, Alarm.com, 2GIG Technologies, and Nest Labs. His services are available nationally and internationally. 

Areas of Expertise:

Background - Mr. Parker is the Past Vice President of Engineering for Digital Security Controls Ltd. (DSC), a leading global manufacturer of electronic security systems and components with sales exceeding $400 million annually. He is currently the President at EE-Systems Group Inc. Canada (R&D) where he is responsible for overseeing new product and business development. A prolific inventor, Mr. Parker has been granted over 25 unique patents with approximately 100 patent documents published worldwide. 

View James Parker's Consulting Profile.

Degreed and Licensed Engineer (PE) of Fire Protection Engineering plus specialized expertise in Building Construction Codes and ASIS Board Certified in Security.

Executive leader in the A/E/C industry - Expert in building codes, setting risk-reduction strategies, balancing safety with security, and managing complex programs including "surgical" engineering problem-solving for complex multi-disciplinary legal issues.

Creator & Host of the "FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING PODCAST" on Blubrry, Apple, YouTube & Spotify Podcasts

https://podcast.show/fpe

My career was founded on designing systems ranging from Wet-Pipe Sprinkler and Speaker/Strobe Notification to advanced Gaseous Suppression and Video Image Smoke Detection for fire protection; or Access Control and Intrusion Detection to Intelligent Video Analytics and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) for security. Expert Witness and Forensics expertise includes:

• Fire Protection Engineering
• Building Codes & Standards
• Determination of Origin & Cause
• Heat Transfer & Fire Spread Analysis
• Hazmat/Explosion
• Life Safety & Property Loss from all emergencies
• Physical & Technical Security Systems Breaches
• Life-Threatening System Failures or Inadequacies
• Accident & Safety Incident Re-creation

Experienced in Fire Cause and Origin, Arson Prosecution and Defense, Product Subrogation, Fire and Building Codes, Life Safety Codes, Fire Injuries and Fatalities, as well as Fire Department Operations and Management. 

John Michael Agosti & Associates provides assistance to insurance companies, attorneys and other agencies in the determination of cause and origin in fires and explosions. Our goal is to provide independent and articulate findings to you the client, quickly and accurately. 

With over 28 years of fire department experience and 15 years in the private sector, Mr. Agosti has completed over two thousand investigations of fires, explosions, and life safety incidents. He has testified in both federal and state courts for both plaintiff and defense clients.